05/12/2009
Pet Shop Boys on Gays, AIDS, Religion, Music, America, and Obama
The Pet Shop Boys talk to Andrew Sullivan for the June/July issue of OUT magazine.
In the interview, which touches on gay culture, America, AIDS, religion, and the music, Neil Tennant confesses: “I got alienated from the gay world -- when I went through my famous heterosexual phase -- because everyone looked the same. To this day, I’ve never got the everyone-looking-the-same thing...this was the clones and the checked shirts and the 501s and the same mustaches, you know. I mean, now you can look back, and it seems sort of endearingly kitsch. It’s Tales of the City, you know -- it’s that period. I found that alienating because it seemed professional and narcissistic and just about doing sex really well. And all of that I don’t find very sexy."
Tennant also speaks of his fondness for Obama: “We’re crazy about Obama in Europe. Everyone thinks he’s sexy. Lovely teeth, as my mother would say. He’s brought back dignity, which is an amazing thing to put back on the cultural agenda. There’s a slightly corny song on our album called 'More Than a Dream,' which was written when Obama was slugging it out with Hillary in the primaries, and you could feel the potential for the world to change away from the sort of paranoia -- justified as it may be -- to something different. And that spirit is what we’re riding at the moment, although of course we wrote that before the economic crisis."
Read the full interview at OUT.
Posted 12:23 PM EST by Andy Towle in Andrew Sullivan, Music, News, Pet Shop Boys | Permalink
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If Andy had done this interview five years ago, would he have asked the Pet Shop Boys about the Fifth Column on the left trying to undermine America, rather than having a gush-fest over Barack Obama?
Sorry, but anything written by Andrew Sullivan needs a post script pointing out that he was the worst of the worst when it came to portraying dissenters as traitors as we went to war in Iraq. People who were against the war were a "Fifth Column," according to Mr. Sullivan. Anyone who stoops to that sort of political discourse once will do it again, and Out should be ashamed for giving him inches in their magazine.
The British are supposed to understand irony, and Americans are not. But here is Andrew Sullivan interviewing the Pet Shop Boys about civil liberties and CCTVs.
The man is a hack, and not a harmless one.
Posted by: Joel | May 12, 2009 12:46:27 PM
I could not agree more Joel. Andrew Sullivan needs to hang his head in shame and quit pretending he speaks for any of us. He was as much a cheerleader for our illegal wars as any FUX news goon and should be deported back to Britain. He is just another foreign operative (see Rupert Murdoch) that used our own media against us and convinced us to shred our Constitution. Pack your bags and get out Andy.
And to see the Pet Shop Boys STILL promoted as fresh just saddens me. This music is the same as it was 20 years ago and represents a generation that thinks fame itself to be an art form. Meanwhile a whole generation of musicians are lost for lack of foster from from those that have successfully navigated the hetero-centric world of music. You guys might be out now but the rule is still STAY CLOSETED IF YOU WANT TO SING. What have you done to change that? - NOTHING.
But sure - here have some more money and we will all shake our aging asses to your worn out beats while our civil rights quest founders. Pass the poppers.
Posted by: Ethan | May 12, 2009 1:21:28 PM
I've got nothing against poppers (try it you might enjoy it) and shaking my aging ass. And I still like the Pet Shop Boys But couldn't agree with you more on the rest.
Posted by: Joel | May 12, 2009 1:47:34 PM
If you ever want a good laugh, search for the video of Sully "interviewing" Jim McGreevey at New York's 92 Street Y. Sully is actually reduced to tears when discussing his devotion to Catholicism. I see he had just had to bring up the loathsome subject again when interviewing the Pet Shop Boys.
The man is a pathetic war-monger.
Posted by: JohnInManhattan | May 12, 2009 2:01:03 PM
PSB have been out for a couple of decades. Given their lyrics, music, and interviews over the year, I'm not sure how one could miss that they are gay dance divas. Meanwhile, fame-as-an-art-form continues to thrive in this "generation."
Posted by: James Black | May 12, 2009 2:05:20 PM
Sullivan & Tennatt. Two self hating closet cases trying to revisit history. They were douche bags back then, they are douche bags now.
Posted by: patrick nyc | May 12, 2009 2:08:10 PM
Nothing beats seeing Andrew Sullivan drunk and crying at the bar of the Duplex Diner in DC. It happens whenever he gets called out on his bullshit.
Posted by: Greg | May 12, 2009 2:29:49 PM
When did Anne Hathaway join the Pet Shop Boys?
http://dev.out.com/images/185/petshop3.jpg
PS Andrew Sullivan is a mess. An enterprising journalist would really pick apart his contradictions, the shifting policy positions, and the increasingly shrill emotional justifications for it all.... it would drive him round the bend.
Posted by: Barry | May 12, 2009 4:49:41 PM
The article is a total blowjob. Embarrassing!
Posted by: GBlad | May 12, 2009 4:52:41 PM
Kudos to Pet Shop boys for acting like bold men.
Posted by: Free Music Download | May 13, 2009 12:01:27 AM
Sorry if I'm a hater, but no self-respecting gay publication should be hiring Andrew Sullivan.
The man is a hypocrite and a major reason for the rightward shift in "gay rights."
Posted by: Anthony in Nashville | May 13, 2009 9:56:19 AM